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Tuesday, 9 July 2013

Despite trying very hard, I’ve never been
very good at social media while everyone else seems supremely confident. But how about other kinds
of publicity, the sort that was around long before social media – using newspapers, for instance, or magazines
or radio to trumpet how wonderful I am! Might I be any better at that? I
thought I’d give it a whirl and recently attended Making the Most of the Media,
a course run by Miranda Birch, miranda@mirandabirchmedia.co.uk. For many years Miranda was one of the
journalists behind Woman’s Hour and Desert Island Discs, so she certainly knows
her stuff. It was a day long course and I wouldn’t attempt to distil all I
learned into a few words but here are several tips I picked up on the way. I’ve
summed them up under the three Cs of Context, Consumers and Contact.

Context:

·Before you
even begin writing a press release, do your research. Which media outlets are
likely to be the most relevant for you? Read the magazines/newspapers you’re
thinking of contacting and listen to the radio programmes. If your likely prey
writes a blog or is on Twitter, be sure to read and to follow.

·Keep a keen
eye on the zeitgeist and be topical. If your writing touches on issues currently
being discussed, wang off that press release.

·Think
seasonal. Summer can be a good time to strike with Parliament in recess, publishing
slowed and people on holiday. Journalists are looking for new material. Ditto
for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

·Download a
calendar of National Awareness weeks – does your writing connect to any of
them?

·And are
there any umbrella organisations you might link to which would be glad to
useyour material? Romantic novelists, for
example, have the RNA blog.

Consumers:

·It sounds
basic but you need to work out who your audience is and what they want. Will
they be interested in an angle that focusses on human interest or is their
concern more with factual information? If you’re a writer, I imagine (though I
could be wrong) it’s likely to be human interest that wins the day, whether
it’s an interest arising from the actual book or from the author’s own story.

·If you’re
targeting a range of media, you need to consider their different ‘lead in’
times – radio works 4 to 6 weeks ahead, newspapers less, magazines sometimes
six months in advance.

·Don’t forget
that sometimes journalists actually ask for material. You can check this out on
Twitter if you type #journorequest into the box.

Contact:

·Once you’ve
decided on the media outlet, make sure you target the right person. If it’s a
magazine, for example, look down the list of editors on the title page and
choose the right one. Always address your message to a named person.

·Make your
press release stand out. The title line should be eye catching. In the body of
the email, always put the most important/interesting feature of your press
release first. Be sure to send your message as part of the email and not as an attachment.
You can add a photo if you think it might help!

·Once you’ve sent
the press release, don’t decide to leap aboard the Trans Siberian railway for a
holiday. Make sure you’re easily contactable and available.

·If you get
no response, be brave and pick up the telephone. Check politely that the person
has received your email and offer to provide more information if it’s needed.